How I used a chart to get through the last stages of potty training

There's potty training, and then there's mostly potty-trained but trying to break a couple of annoying habits training. This was the case with my son, who is now three. He's my youngest, and his sister was trained by two and a half, so the fact that he was three, showing many more signs of being ready than his sister had–ie, talking about it and understanding what going to the bathroom is–he still just wasn't doing it right! He was actually doing pretty well at peeing, and would let me know almost all the time on that one, the problem was getting the poop in the potty. He just didn't want to do it! So here is how I got us through that bit:

First, I offered a reward for if he would do it in the potty. Well, okay, I'd been trying that idea for months, so let me rephrase: I finally found a reward that would be acceptable to him for pooping in the potty!  What was the reward? Underpants with cool characters on them. I liked this reward because it was achievement appropriate. It made sense to me to get some nice underpants for using the potty. So what we did for awhile was get packs of three pairs, and every time he went in the potty–pretty much once a day–he would get one new pair. The problem is, after about a week and a half of this, he had ten new pairs of underwear, and he would still only go in the potty if I made this offer. He had been running off and hiding to do his business in his diaper for so long that it was going to take a little more time and effort to break this habit!

This is where our poop chart comes in. I made up a simple table on the computer with five rows and seven columns  to cover five weeks time. I hoped that would be enough! (Make it for however many rows you want, of course.) As we went along, I simply wrote the date in each box to know where we were at. Then I told my son that he would get a sticker every time he pooped in the potty. After he got five sticker days he would get his reward. At this point we switched to toy cars for his reward. He's been really into the movie Cars lately, so I could get him some of those small cars and he would be happy. Part of my reason for switching is that, besides a drawer overflowing with underwear, the cars would actually be a little bit cheaper for me. When it comes to a reward, definitely pick a cheap one! There's no reason to spend a fortune, although I justify spending on some reward because it will be cheaper than continuing in diapers for another six months to a year!

Once we started on the chart, although he had a couple of bad days the first two weeks and he got a couple of Xes for going in his underpants, he soon figured out that it was to his advantage to go in the potty and not in his pants. I think everyone in the house was thrilled! No one more than I was, though.

One other thing to keep in mind is that by doing a chart like this with rewards I was at risk of having a child who expected rewards for every visit to the toilet for the rest of his life, so I made sure to forewarn him that when the chart was full, all he would be getting from me was hugs and hi-fives. He was agreeable to this, and though he now still mentions a new car he wants every now and then when he uses the bathroom, I just have to suggest he save his own money and he agrees and we move on to the idea of doing some work for me to earn a few pennies. I would definitely recommend a forewarning before hitting the end of the chart, though. That way it's not a shock when the rewards stop coming. Well, okay, not a total shock, at least.

So if you have a child that is mostly potty-trained and just needs to get over that final hump, you might want to try a poop chart. Or maybe at your house it's a pee chart. Whatever the case, the key is finding a reward that works and then sticking with it. And keep in mind that you may need to do as I did and offer something for each visit to the potty first to get them in the habit, then switch to the chart for fine tuning.